It was a very positive,
encouraging, and reinforcing experience for me to get acquainted
with this outstanding story at an important and difficult phase
of my life. I am close to finishing my studies at the university
and will have to decide what I want to do with my life. Should
I start working, if so what kind of job would be the best? Or
should I still go on with studying? This book filled me with
hope and courage that it is worth struggling for my dream.

The autobiography
of Ceclia Ruiz Tomlinson is the story of an extraordinary woman.
It is not an everyday life story, but something unusual. Yet
when I started to read this book, another autobiography came
to my mind which handled a story of a quite similar issues, though
with several differences: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou. Both of these women wrote about their difficulties
with getting along in a white world full of obstacles, and finally
becoming successful, acknowledged, and respected as a result
of the fights in their pioneering lives.

Tomlinsons work
consists of 19 chapters recounting the most significant and determining
events of her life. She writes about sadness, happiness, failures,
successes, her struggles, fights and feelings, with well-selected
words and in a very elaborate style. Her way of writing is simple,
but with a refined simplicity instead of triviality. She writes
in a rationalistic, true to life, sometimes naturalistic manner.
She has a very good sense of how to present life and its workings
aptly, credibly, and with delicacy. It is amazing, for example,
how she describes human contacts, relationships--how a person
is introduced to us. From a few sentences we know what that person
is like, what s/he likes and what not and what we can expect
from her/him. The problems and nuisances of minimal or basic
human existence are also depicted accurately, such as the lack
of a proper toilet or bathroom. She writes in details about her
experiences but her work is never exhaustive or elongated. It
deserves attention likewise that she underlines thoughts, or
chain of thoughts, with what she considers to be important helping
us to find the ideas of essential importance in her story.

The autobiography
starts with a little introductory chapter about what she has
achieved and why what she did is important. Then, Celia Ruiz
Tomlinson begins her story from her childhood. We learn
about her happy overture of life in San Miguel, Bulacan
in the Philippines. Later on, because of an unfortunate event,
her familys life takes a sad turn.They have to move to
Manila and to start a new life in poverty with full of hardships.
She relates how she studies, what studying meant for her, her
father and her mother. She tells her story of how to get out
of the slums and poverty, and how to become successful and rich
via studying and fighting hard for advancement. Her toil of becoming
a skilled, experienced, acknowledged and respected civil engineer
is presented to us in her autobiographical book. She was one
of the first female civil engineers who got a degree, and probably,
the only one who managed to gain sphere and success in practice,
as well. She succeeded in breaking down many unwritten rules
and invisible walls which discriminated against women from various
points of view. She successfully emigrated to the United States;
and after overcoming many obstacles, she became a registered
engineer in the U.S., as well. She worked hard, and finally,
she even managed to found her own engineering company. Along
with her professional work, she got married. She lead and still
leads a full life with professional successes, after much hard
work a good marriage, and a son.

At the end of her
book, Celia Tomlinson also gives some useful advice about how
to become successful. She talks about the interesting features
of success, and she warns all of us to differentiate between
dreams and fantasies. She reveals that selfishness is needed
for success, but only provided nobody gets hurt. She also claims
that you have to be different, to stand out of the crowd. You
have to make positive steps, to be prepared, to be determined;
you have to let go of the past, you must never underestimate
people and you just have to go for it to achieve
success (240-247). A teaching which can be followed
and which probably results in a positive outcome.

It is also amazing
how she manages to describe the workings of society, rules of
social behaviour, how she handles moral questions, investigates
problematic issues concerning every aspects of life. She describes
and presents such subject matters which are of high importance
in literary theory, such as the traffic in women, the eye of
power, the gaze and the like. She discusses inferiority, superiority,
male domination, racism, and all kinds of discrimination with
much skill.

What is really captivating in this book
or this story is the author herself, her personality, her character,
her strength, her courage and all her abilities to become successful.
Whenever the slightest doubt comes into our mind about whether
it is worth struggling or fighting for something; this example,
Celia Ruiz Tomlinsons example shows us that, yes, it is
worth, and we must not give up. With her words behind each
option lurks new problems but a solution always exists, as sure
as there is a ramp to every bridge (238).